FIENNES, Sophie. UK film director & producer advocating cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel: "the situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid"

Sophie Fiennes(Sophia Victoria Twisleton Wykeham-Fiennes;
born 12 February 1967) is an English film director and producer (e.g. Channel 4
TV production “Because I Sing”) (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Fiennes
).

Sophie Fiennesadvocating
a cultural boycott of Apartheid Israel in a letter to the UK Guardian signed by 95 creative writers and artists (2006): “There is a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, albeit
daily violated by Israeli overflights. Meanwhile the day-to-day brutality of
the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank continues. Ten Palestinians are killed for
every Israeli death; more than 200, many of them children, have been killed
since the summer. UN resolutions are flouted, human rights violated as
Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For
archbishop Desmond Tutu, as for the Jewish former ANC military commander now
South African minister of security, Ronnie Kasrils, the situation of the
Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under apartheid.

Meanwhile, western governments refer to Israel's legitimate right of
self-defence, and continue to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was
fought better. The non-violent international response to apartheid was a
campaign of boycott, divestment and UN-imposed sanctions which enabled the
regime to change without bloodshed.

Today, Palestinians teachers, writers, film-makers and non-governmental
organisations have called for a comparable academic and cultural boycott of Israel as
offering another path to a just peace. This call has been endorsed
internationally by university teachers in many European countries, by
film-makers and architects, and by some brave Israeli dissidents. It is now
time for others to join the campaign - as Primo Levi asked: "If not now,
when?" We call on creative writers and artists to support our Palestinian
and Israeli colleagues by endorsing the boycott call. Read the Palestinian call
pacbi.org.